Sensor device and sensor arrangement

ABSTRACT

A sensor arrangement according to an embodiment includes a board with a plurality of conductive lines of a first type, and a plurality of conductive lines of a second type different from the conductive lines of the first type, and a recess. The sensor arrangement further includes a plurality of sensor devices mechanically accommodated on a main surface of the board and arranged around the recess, each sensor device being electrically coupled to the conductive lines of the first type and at least to one of the conductive lines of the second type, wherein each conductive line of the second type electrically couples a sensor device with at least one other item different from the sensor devices of the plurality of sensor devices. A projection of the conductive lines of the first and second types perpendicular to the main surface is crossing-free. Each conductive line of the first type electrically couples at least all of the plurality of sensor devices.

REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application is a divisional of U.S. application Ser. No. 14/299,563filed on Jun. 9, 2014, the contents of which are incorporated byreference in their entirety.

FIELD

Embodiments relate to a sensor device and a sensor arrangement.

BACKGROUND

In many applications, systems, components and devices have to bedesigned in view of partially contradicting goals and aspects. Amongthose are, for instance, technical feasibility, accuracy, reliability,efficiency, producability and more economically oriented aspectsincluding, for instance, production and/or operation costs. These andfurther aspects may have to be considered and balanced out whendesigning a specific device, a component for a larger system or a wholesystem.

Examples come from all fields of technology where, for instance, sensorsare used to detect and monitor environmental parameters, operationalparameters and other physical, chemical or biological quantities. Thepreviously-mentioned goals and aspects are typically considered on alllevels of designing a complex system. In other words, not only on thesystem-level, but also on a component- and device-based level, partiallycontradicting goals and aspects will have to be considered. Moreover,between the different levels, typically an interchange exists. The lesseffort on one level is spent, the more attention has to be typicallypaid to details on other levels.

For instance, in the component of a system comprising one or moredevices, simplifying the properties and features of the device may leadto a more complicated implementation of the devices into the component.

In the field of sensor-related applications, it may be interesting toimplement not just a single sensor device, but a plurality of sensordevices for different reasons, for instance, to enhance an accuracy ofthe measurement. However, to influence the previously-mentioned goalsand aspects, simplifying a sensor device at least to some extent mayappear to be a viable option. However, implementing such a sensor devicemay become more difficult and influence the previously-mentioned goalsand aspects of the component itself or other parts thereof. Forinstance, the electrical connections to supply the individual sensordevices with electrical energy and to allow information carrying signalsto be at least in one direction sent may become more difficult.

SUMMARY

Therefore, a demand exists to provide a sensor arrangement and a sensordevice allowing an easier implementation.

A sensor arrangement according to an embodiment comprises a boardcomprising a plurality of conductive lines of a first type, a pluralityof conductive lines of a second type different from the conductive linesof the first type, and a recess. It further comprises a plurality ofsensor devices mechanically accommodated on a main surface of the boardand arranged around the recess, each sensor device being electricallycoupled to the conductive lines of the first type and at least to one ofthe conductive lines of the second type, wherein each conductive line ofthe second type electrically couples a sensor device with at least oneother item different from the sensor devices of the plurality of sensordevices, wherein a projection of the conductive lines of the first andsecond types perpendicular to the main surface is crossing-free, andwherein each conductive line of the first type electrically couples atleast all of the plurality of sensor devices.

A sensor device according to an embodiment comprises a magnetic fieldsensitive element comprising at least two electrical supply terminalsand at least one output terminal, wherein the device is subdividable byan intersecting plane into a first portion and a second portion suchthat the centroids of all of the contact areas of the electrical supplyterminals are arranged in the second portion.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Several embodiments of the present invention will be described in theenclosed figures.

FIG. 1 shows a schematic overview of a sensor device according to anembodiment;

FIG. 2 shows a simplified block diagram of a sensor arrangementaccording to an embodiment;

FIG. 3 shows a schematic block diagram of a sensor arrangement accordingto an embodiment;

FIG. 4 shows a simplified block diagram of a sensor device according toan embodiment;

FIG. 5 shows a circuit diagram of a half-bridge circuit;

FIG. 6 shows a circuit diagram of a full-bridge circuit;

FIG. 7 shows a simplified block diagram of a sensor device according toan embodiment comprising two half-bridge circuits;

FIG. 8 shows a simplified block diagram of a sensor device comprising afull-bridge circuit;

FIG. 9 shows a simplified block diagram of a sensor device comprisingtwo full-bridge circuits;

FIG. 10a shows a schematic plan view of a sensor arrangement accordingto an embodiment comprising three SMD sensor devices;

FIG. 10b shows the schematic plan view of FIG. 10a without the three SMDsensor devices;

FIG. 10c shows a perspective view of a SMD-package of sensor device withleads according to an embodiment;

FIG. 10d shows a perspective view of a SMD-package of sensor device withleads according to an embodiment;

FIG. 10e shows a perspective view of a SMD-package of sensor device withlands according to an embodiment;

FIG. 11a shows a schematic plan view of a sensor arrangement accordingto an embodiment comprising three SMD sensor devices, each accommodatingtwo half-bridge circuits of AMR sensor elements;

FIG. 11b shows the schematic plan view of FIG. 11a without the three SMDsensor devices;

FIG. 12a shows a schematic plan view of a sensor arrangement accordingto an embodiment comprising three SMD sensor devices, each accommodatingtwo half-bridge circuits of AMR sensor elements;

FIG. 12b shows the schematic plan view of FIG. 12a without the three SMDsensor devices;

FIG. 13a shows a schematic plan view of a sensor arrangement accordingto an embodiment comprising three sensor devices comprising each twofull-bridge circuits;

FIG. 13b shows the schematic plan view of FIG. 13a without the three SMDsensor devices;

FIG. 14 shows a perspective view of a sensor system comprising a sensorarrangement according to an embodiment;

FIG. 15 shows a perspective view of a further sensor system comprising asensor arrangement according to an embodiment;

FIG. 16 shows a cross-sectional view of the sensor system of FIG. 15;

FIG. 17 shows a perspective view of a further sensor system comprising asensor arrangement according to an embodiment;

FIG. 18 shows a perspective view of a sensor system comprising a furthersensor arrangement according to an embodiment;

FIG. 19a shows a simplified layout of a sensor arrangement according toan embodiment;

FIG. 19b shows a simplified layout of a sensor device according to anembodiment, which may be used in the sensor arrangement of FIG. 19 a;

FIG. 20a shows a simplified plan view of a sensor arrangement accordingto an embodiment;

FIG. 20b shows the sensor arrangement of FIG. 20a without the sensordevices;

FIG. 21a shows a simplified diagram of a sensor device according to afurther embodiment; and

FIG. 21b shows the plan view of FIG. 21a without the sensor devices.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In the following, embodiments according to the present invention will bedescribed in more detail. In this context, summarizing reference signswill be used to describe several objects simultaneously or to describecommon features, dimensions, characteristics, or the like of theseobjects. The summarizing reference signs are based on their individualreference signs. Moreover, objects appearing in several embodiments orseveral figures, but which are identical or at least similar in terms ofat least some of their functions or structural features, will be denotedwith the same or similar reference signs. To avoid unnecessaryrepetitions, parts of the description referring to such objects alsorelate to the corresponding objects of the different embodiments or thedifferent figures, unless explicitly or—taking the context of thedescription and the figures into account—implicitly stated otherwise.Therefore, similar or related objects may be implemented with at leastsome identical or similar features, dimensions, and characteristics, butmay be also implemented with differing properties.

As will be laid out in more detail below, a practical relevance of anembodiment may be a cost-efficient sensor system, which uses severalchips arranged around a center. In order to achieve low over-all costs,it may be advisable to implement chips being comparably cheap. This,however, may mean that it may be advisable to use chips or deviceshaving no active electronic devices like transistors, but onlycomparably simple magneto-resistors or similar sensor elements. As aconsequence, the chips might not comprise a typical number of, forinstance, about 20 levels or layers of a CMOS/BiCMOS (CMOS=complementarymetal oxide semiconductor; BiCMOS=Bipolar CMOS) semiconductor structure,but only a few levels/layers needed to be patterned and contacted toprovide sensor elements such as magneto-resistors.

However, embodiments are by far not limited to low-cost systems orsystems comprising only low-complexity devices or systems employingmagnetic sensor elements. Embodiments may come from all areas oftechnology. Only to keep the following description brief and concise,the main focus will be laid on magnetic sensor applications andmagneto-resistive sensor elements.

FIG. 1 shows a schematic overview of a device 100 according to anembodiment. The device 100 comprises at least two supply terminals110-1, 110-2 to provide the device 100 with a electrical energy tooperate the device 100. Via the supply terminals 110 the device 100 canbe supplied with electrical energy by providing, for instance, anegative supply voltage and a positive supply voltage to the supplyterminals 110-1, 110-2, respectively, or vice-versa. In the followingdescription, the first supply terminal 110-1 will be considered the oneto provide the negative supply voltage, while the second supply terminal110-2 will be the one for the positive supply voltage. Naturally, thepolarity of the supply voltages may be reversed or switched with respectto the terminals. Therefore, the supply terminals 110 may be designed tocouple electrical energy at two different electrical potentials to thesensor device 100.

The supply terminals 110 represent examples of terminals of a first type115, each of which may be electrically coupled to a conductive linecoupling, for instance, a plurality of sensor devices 100 or otherdevices to a common electrical network node. Apart from thepreviously-mentioned supply terminals, further examples of such aterminal of a first type 115, which is also referred to as a terminal oftype A, may, for instance, comprise terminals to be coupled to a commonclock line. In other words, terminals of different sensor devices 100and, optionally, other circuits may be coupled to the same electricalnetwork node. In other words, the corresponding terminals of, forinstance, all devices 100 or all sensor devices 100, may beinterconnected by a conductive line such as a conductive trace, aconductive track, a corresponding wire or another electrical contacthaving a negligible electrical resistance compared to other resistiveelements of the resulting circuitry.

Correspondingly, the signal lines to which the terminals of the firsttype 115 may be coupled, may be referred to as conductive lines of afirst type. Examples will be described in more detail below. Anelectrical node may, for instance, comprise an electrical potentialwhich is essentially the same for all terminals of the first type 115for signals having a sufficiently low frequency such as DC or DC-likesignals (DC=direct current). DC-like or signals having a sufficientlylow frequency may, for instance, be signals having a frequencycorresponding to a wavelength, which is substantially larger than anextension of the corresponding conductive line of the first type. Thismay enable to provide all terminals coupled to the respective commonelectrical network node with the same electrical potential essentiallysimultaneously. In other words, effects caused by a finite propagationvelocity may be disregarded in such a situation.

Terminals of the first type 150 may be suitable to be provided with thesame electrical potential during operation of the sensor device 100.However, the terminals of the first type may also comprise all terminalsnecessary to supply the sensor device 100 with energy, a common systemmaster clock, other common system signals for synchronization purpose orany combination thereof.

The device 100 further comprises at least one sensor signal outputterminal 120 capable of providing a sensor signal to a further componentoutside the device 100. The sensor signal output terminal 120 may beused to fulfill further functions and tasks in embodiments of a device100 than to provide the sensor signal. The sensor signal output terminal120 may, for instance, also be used to receive other sensor signals fromother devices, to provide or to receive other information carryingsignals such as control signals, status signals, error signals, commandsignals to the device 100, from the device 100, or in both directions.

The sensor signal output terminals 120 represent an example of aterminal of a second type 125. Each terminal of the second type 125 maybe electrically coupled to a corresponding conductive line electricallycoupling the respective sensor device 100 to an item, which is differentfrom the sensor devices 100 or, in other words, none of any devices 100comprised in a sensor arrangement as described below. Terminals 125 ofthe second type, which are also referred to as terminals of type B,electrically couple a specific terminal of the device 100 to other itemsor circuit elements excluding the same or a similar terminal in terms oftheir functions of one or more other devices 100. Terminals of thesecond type 125 couple the respective terminal of the sensor device 100to an electrical network node individual to the specific device 100 interms of all the other devices 100, when implemented. To this specificnetwork node no other device 100 is directly electrically coupled.However, the terminal of the second type 125 may naturally be coupled toother circuit elements or items to allow obtain or provide, forinstance, a signal at the respective terminal of the second type 125.Examples of circuit elements and items comprise connectors, pins,resistors, transistors and other electrical and electronic devices andstructures. To put it in different words, by electrically connecting orcoupling two or more sensor devices 100 on a common component board suchas a printed circuit board (PCB), the respective terminals of the secondtype 125 of different devices 100 are not coupled to a common electricalnetwork node. For instance, each of the conductive lines of the firsttype may couple the sensor devices 100 to an electrical network nodecommon to all of the sensor devices 100, while each of the conductivelines of the second type may couple exactly one sensor device 100 toexactly one electrical network node individual to the respective sensordevice.

An electrical network node may form, when two electrically conductivestructures such as terminals of one or more devices 100, other circuitelements or devices are electrically coupled by an electricallyconductive structure such as a conductive line or trace, a wire or asimilar wire-like electrical connection. As a consequence, therespective electrical components and, hence, the electrical networknode, may share under ideal circumstances the same electrical potential.Depending on the electrical resistances involved, the lengths of theinterconnecting electrical connections and other parameters, deviationsin a real-life implementation may occur due to resistances, propagationvelocities and other effects.

The conductive lines used to electrically couple the terminals of thefirst type and of the second type are referred to as conductive lines ofthe first and second type, respectively.

Mechanical components may be coupled to one another directly orindirectly via a further component. Electrical and other components canbe coupled to one another directly or indirectly in such a way thatinformation carrying or informing comprising signals can be interchangedor sent from one component to the other component. Moreover, electricaland other components can be electrically coupled directly or indirectlyto provide them with electrical energy, for instance, by providing asupply voltage and a supply current to the respective components.

Information carrying signals or information comprising signals can besent, provided or interchanged, for instance, using electrical, optical,magnetic or radio signals. The signals can be in terms of their valuesand their timely sequence independent from one another be discrete orcontinuous. For instance, the signals may be analog or digital signals.

The sensor device 100 may be arrangable such that the supply terminals110 may be arranged closer to a reference point 130 outside the sensordevice 100 than any signal output terminal of the device 100. Thereference point 130 may, for instance, lay on a reference direction orreference line of the sensor device 100. Such a reference direction orreference line may, for instance, correspond to a predefined orientationdirection for operating the device 100. For instance, the referencedirection may correspond to 0°-direction of an external magnetic field.It may, for instance, be determined by a device-internal structureand/or orientation of its sensor elements. However, it may also be theconsequence of a device-internal manipulation of data provided by thesensor elements of the device 100. In other words, the reference point130 may lay on a predefined and/or device-specific measurement directionor measurement line.

As outlined before, depending on the concrete implementation of a sensordevice 100, the at least two supply terminals 110 may also be closer toor equally spaced from the reference point 130 than any of at least oneof all sensor signal terminals of the sensor device 100 and all signalterminals for information carrying signals of the sensor device 100, forinstance, to receive, to send or to interchange control signals, statussignals, error signals and/or command signals.

Naturally, the number of terminals may differ from the number ofterminals shown in FIG. 1. For instance, the device 100 may comprisemore than two supply terminals 110, for instance, three, four or moreterminals. Similarly, the number of sensor signal output terminals 120,sensor signal terminals or signals for information carrying signals mayalso be larger than one. Examples will be shown and described in moredetail below. To put it in more general terms, a sensor device 100according to an embodiment may comprise more terminals of a first type115 and, alternatively or additionally, more terminals of the secondtype than shown in FIG. 1.

The supply terminals 110 and the sensor signal output terminals 120 maybe arranged and configured in such a way to establish an electricalconnection or an electrical coupling to an external board in a commonplane. The same may also be true for a device 100 for further terminalssuch as the previously-mentioned signal terminals and the signalterminals for information carrying signals. In such a case, thereference point 130 may, for instance, be located in the common planeand outside a projection of the sensor device 100 onto the common planealong a direction perpendicular to the common plane.

For instance, the device may be designed to be mountable to such anexternal board using a flip-chip-technique. In such a case, the device100 may, for instance, comprise pads which may be metallized andarranged on the surface of a die or a chip of the device 100. Onto therespective pads solder dots may be deposited which can then be used tosolder the device 100 onto the external board. For instance, theterminals of the sensor device 100 may be arranged in such a way that inthe case of employing the flip-chip-technique a mechanically stableconfiguration may be achieved allowing the device or chip to rest safelyon its terminals. For instance, the terminals may be arranged to preventthe device from toppling or tilting. In other words, the terminals maybe arranged in a pattern different from a single straight line.

Naturally, also other mounting techniques may be used. For instance, thedevice 100 may comprise a housing 140 to form a leaded package or anunleaded SMD package (SMD=Surface Mountable Device). In the case of aleaded package, the corresponding external board may comprise holesthrough which the leads of the leaded package are put and in which theleads of the housing 140 are soldered. However, in the case of anunleaded SMD package, the housing 140 may comprise lands or othercontact pins or terminals allowing the device 100 to be directlysoldered onto the external board.

The reference point 130 may, for instance, be arranged in the commonplane, in which the at least two supply terminals 110 and the signaloutput terminals 120 of the sensor device 100 are configured to beelectrically coupled to the external board. Moreover, the referencepoint may be located outside a projection area of the sensor device 100onto the common plane in a direction perpendicular to the common plane.Moreover, the reference point may also be located outside of arectangular-shaped area in the common plane completely comprising thepreviously defined projection area of the device 100.

The sensor device 100 may be implemented as a discrete device. Adiscrete device may be, for instance, contained within or formed on asingle substrate, die or chip. It may also be distributed over severalsubstrates, dies or chips with the substrates being arranged orcontained in a single package. For instance, all parts of the discretedevice may be manufactured in a single process sequence, such as asemiconductor wafer process to fabricate the discrete device. Sometimes,parts of the sensors may be manufactured after a typical microelectronicwafer manufacturing process. For instance, magnetic flux concentratorsmay be glued to a top of a wafer, diode chip or magneto-resistors may besputtered on top of a wafer after the last interconnect layer has beenmanufactured. In order not to pollute the wafer fabrication these partsmay be done immediately after the ordinary wafer process, yet theseprocessing steps may still be closely linked to the wafer fabrication,particularly, if a final passivation layer protecting the circuit andother sensor elements is applied afterwards.

Another possible feature of a discrete device 100 may be that it hasundergone a magnetic or other functional test, before it is assembledtogether into a more complex component. If such a test has been carriedout, the individual parts that went through this test may be regarded asdiscrete devices. For instance, the test may comprise a simplified testprocedure allowing verifying if the discrete device works and if itsperformance is in the expected limits. In other words, the test may beused to see if an additional calibration may be unnecessary, advisableor perhaps even necessary. However, it may be interesting to try toavoid an additional calibration to avoid implementing an additionalmemory or other storage cells to store the calibration data. This may,for instance, be avoided by using a set of discrete devices havingsimilar properties and/or characteristics within a specified,application-specific margin. For instance, the discrete devices may becoupled to the same power source and/or be fabricated during the sameprocess steps.

The at least two supply terminals 110, the sensor signal outputterminals 120—and optionally the further terminals mentioned above—maybe arranged in at least one row 150 of terminals. In the case of thesensor device 100 as shown in FIG. 1, the terminals 110, 120 arearranged in two rows 150-1, 150-2. The rows are in this embodimentaligned to point approximately to the reference point 130. Naturally, inother embodiments, the number of rows 150 may be different. Forinstance, a sensor device 100 may comprise only a single row or three ormore rows 150. The rows 150 of terminals may optionally be equallyspaced. In such a case as, for instance, depicted in FIG. 1, the supplyterminals 110 arranged in the same row 150 of terminals as any othersensor signal output terminal 120 are arranged closer to the referencepoint 130 than the corresponding sensor signal output terminals 120. Inthe case of FIG. 1, the supply terminal 110-1 of row 150-2 is closer tothe reference point 130 than the sensor signal output terminal 120.

Naturally, the same also applies to more complicated sensor devicelayouts than the one shown in FIG. 1.

The sensor device 100 may be arrangable such that the at least twosupply terminals 110 are closer to the reference point 130 than any ofthe at least one sensor output signal terminal 120 of the sensor device100. The at least two supply terminals 110 and the signal outputterminals 120 of the sensor device 100 may be configured to beelectrically coupled to an external board in a common plane. In thiscase, the reference point 130 may be located in the common plane andoutside a projection of the sensor device 100 onto the common planealong a direction perpendicular to the common plane.

A sensor device 100 according to an embodiment may comprise at least onesensor element electrically coupled to at least one of the sensor signaloutput terminals 120 of the sensor device 100. In such a case, thesensor device 100 may comprise a plurality of sensor elementselectrically coupled to form at least one half bridge circuit comprisinga series connection of at least two sensor elements and a node arrangedbetween the at least two sensor elements, wherein the node iselectrically coupled to at least one of the sensor signal outputterminals of the sensor device, as will be outlined in more detailbelow. Additionally or alternatively, the at least one sensor elementcomprises at least one magnetic field sensor element. In such a case,the at least one magnetic field sensor element may comprise at least oneof magneto-resistive sensor element, a Hall sensor element, a verticalHall sensor element, and a magnetic field effect transistor. Themagnetic field sensor element may optionally comprise a magneticallypinned layer.

In a sensor device 100 according to an embodiment, the at least onesensor element may be formed at least partially on or in a die, the diecomprising a main surface, wherein the main surface is arrangedessentially parallel to a common plane, in which the at least two supplyterminals and the signal output terminals of the sensor device areconfigured to be electrically coupled to an external board. Naturally, asensor device 100 according to an embodiment may comprise a plurality ofsensor signal output terminals 120.

The sensor device 100 may be sub-dividable by an intersecting plane 160into a first portion 170-1 and a second portion 170-2, such that thecentroids 180 (geometrical center points) of the contact areas of all ofthe terminals of the second type 125 are arranged in the second portion170-2. Moreover, the centroids 180 of the contact areas of all but atmost one of the terminals of the first type 115 may be arranged in thefirst portion 170-1. To put it differently, in some embodiments, allterminals of the second type (type B terminals) 125, which are or may benecessary to operate the sensor device 100, may be located in the secondportion 170-2.

The terminals of the first and second types 115, 125 may be essentiallyarranged in a common plane as outlined before. The sensor device 100 maycomprise in this case a projection onto the common plane of polygonal,rectangular or quadratic shape. Naturally, the sensor device 100 maycomprise a sensor element, which may, for instance, comprise a magneticsensor element. The magnetic sensor element in turn may optionallycomprise a magnetically-pinned layer.

For instance, a sensor device 100 may comprise at least two supplyterminals 110, which may be designed to couple electrical energy at twodifferent electrical potentials to the sensor device 100, and at leastone output signal terminal 120 that provides a sensor output signal. Thesensor device 100 may further be configured to be mountable to acomponent board (not shown in FIG. 1) with a single interconnect layerin such a way that a plurality of sensor devices 100 could be placedsymmetrically around a perimeter of a hole in the component board,whereby all positive supply terminals 110 would be connected to apositive supply trace in the single interconnect layer of the componentboard, all negative supply terminals 110 would be connected to anegative supply trace in the single interconnect layer of the componentboard, and each output signal terminal 120 would be connected to itsdedicated output signal trace in the single interconnect layer of thecomponent board, whereby no two of the supply traces and the signaltraces would be shorted. In other words, in a plan-view or in aprojection along a direction perpendicular to the common plane mentionedbefore or a main surface of the die of the sensor device 100, theconductive lines may be crossing-free.

Hence, as an example, all terminals of the first type 115 may bearranged at or on the package of the sensor device 100 such that severalpackages may be arranged around a hole or a recess in the componentboard such that the connecting lines coupled to all terminals of thefirst and second types 115, 125, which are necessary for operating thesensor device 100, can be designed to get close to an outer perimeter ofthe component board without any of the conductive lines crossingthemselves or other conducting lines. To put it in different words, noneof the conductive lines of the first type (type A conductive lines)cross conductive lines of the second type (type B conductive lines).

FIG. 2 shows a sensor arrangement 200 comprising a board 210 comprisingat least two supply lines 220 and a plurality of signal lines 230 and arecess 240 with a reference point 130. It further comprises a pluralityof sensor devices 100 which are mechanically accommodated on the board210 using the flip-chip technique. To be more exact, the sensorarrangement 200 as shown in FIG. 2 comprises two sensor devices 100-1,100-2, but other sensor arrangements 200 may naturally comprise moresensor devices 100. Each of the sensor devices 100 is electricallycoupled to the at least two supply lines 220 and to at least one signalline 230 to provide a sensor signal to the at least one signal line. Theat least two supply lines 220 are arranged radially inside of theplurality of signal lines 230 with respect to the reference point 130.

The sensor devices 100 may, for instance, be implemented as a sensordevice 100 depicted and described in the context of FIG. 1. In otherwords, the sensor devices 100 may comprise at least two supply terminals110-1, 110-2 and at least one sensor signal output terminal 120. Asshown in FIG. 2, the sensor devices 100 may be arrangable such that theat least two supply terminals 110 may be closer to or equally spacedfrom the reference point 130 outside the sensor device 100 than anysensor signal output terminal 120 of the sensor device 100.

In the sensor arrangement 200 as shown in FIG. 2, the board 210comprises a plurality of conductive lines 225 and a plurality ofconductive lines of the second type 235. The previously-mentioned supplylines 220 are one example of the conductive lines of the first type 225,each of which couples the sensor devices 100 of the sensor arrangement200—for instance all sensor devices 100 of the sensor arrangement 200—toone electrical network node common to all of the sensor devices 100. Anexample of the conductive lines of the second type 235 represent thepreviously-mentioned signal lines 230, each of which couples exactly onesensor device 100 of the sensor device 200 to exactly one electricalnode individual to the respective sensor device 100. In other words,each conductive line of the second type 235 is electrically coupled toexactly one sensor device 100.

Although in the embodiment shown in FIG. 2, only two sensor devices 100are shown, in other embodiments more than two sensor devices may beimplemented. In other words, the plurality of sensor devices 100 may insome embodiments comprise at least three sensor devices 100. In aprojection of the conductive lines of the first and second types 225,235 perpendicular to the main surface of the board, on which the sensordevices 100 are mechanically accommodated, may be crossing-free.

As outlined before, the sensor devices 100 may be arranged around therecess 240 of the (component) board 210, wherein the recess mayoptionally go through the board 210 in a direction perpendicular to thepreviously-mentioned main surface. The recess 240 may comprise aregular-shaped hole comprising a center point, which may coincide with areference point 130. The regular shape may be a circular shape, anelliptical shape or a polygonal shape.

In the example shown in FIG. 2, the sensor devices 100 may be orientedtowards the reference point 130 such that by rotating the sensorarrangement 100 around the reference point 130 by an angle equal to anangle between two sensor devices 100 with respect to the reference point130, an orientation of at least one of the sensor devices 100 becomesidentical to that of at least one of the two sensor devices 100previously mentioned. To illustrate this in more detail, the terminals110-1, 110-2, 120 are arranged in the example shown in FIG. 2 on threeconcentric circles 250-1, 250-2, 250-3, respectively, all having as acenter point or midpoint the reference point 130 and, hence, the centerpoint of the recess 240. For instance, by rotating the sensorarrangement 200 by 180°, the sensor devices 100-1, 100-2 swap orexchange their positions and orientations.

In other words, the sensor devices 100 each comprise a predefined,device-specific orientation direction 260. The sensor devices 100 areoriented with respect to the center point (reference point 130) suchthat the orientation direction 260 points towards the center point orreference point 130. The sensor devices 100 may be oriented towards thecenter point (reference point 130) such that by rotating the sensorarrangement 200 around the center point by an angle equal to an anglebetween two of the sensor devices 100 with respect to the center point,an orientation of at least one of the sensor devices 100 becomesidentical to that of the other one of the at least two sensor devicesforming the plurality of sensor devices 100.

The conductive lines of the first type 225 may be essentially arrangedradially inside of the conducting lines of the second type 235 withrespect to the recess 240. Based on the center point or reference point130, the conductive lines of the first type 225 may be arranged closerto the center point than the conductive lines of the second type 235with respect to a predefined cross-sectional plane perpendicular to themain surface of the board 210 and comprising a center axis beingperpendicular to the main surface of the board 210 and comprising thecenter point or reference point 130. For instance, the conductive linesof a first type 225 may be arranged radially inside of the conductivelines of the second type 235 with respect to at least 75% of all angles,along which at least one conductive line of the first type 225 and atleast one conductive line of the second type 235 are arranged. In otherembodiments, the previously-mentioned ratio of 75% may be higher, forinstance, comprising, for instance, 85% or even 90%. In otherembodiments the ratio may go up as high as 100% such that with respectto angles in a direction of which at least one conductive line of thefirst type 125 and at least one conductive line of the second type 235are arranged, the conductive lines of the first type 225 are alwayscloser to the center point than the conductive lines of the second type235.

Moreover, the sensor devices 100 are identical in the embodiment shownin FIG. 2. This may, for instance, simplify integration andmanufacturing of the sensor arrangement 200.

However, in other embodiments, the sensor devices 100 are not requiredto be identical. For instance, the sensor devices 100 each may comprisea predefined orientation direction 260, which are implemented in termsof the sensor arrangement such that the orientation directions 260 ofthe plurality of sensor devices 100 point toward the reference point130.

In the case that the plurality of sensor devices 100 is equally spacedaround the reference point 130, by “rotating” the sensor device 100around the center or reference point 130 by the angle between twoneighboring devices (or an integer multiple thereof), the positions andorientations of all sensor devices 100 may stay the same. In otherwords, the sensor devices 100 of the sensor arrangement 200 may berotation-invariant.

For instance, the at least two supply lines 220 and the plurality ofsignal lines 230 may comprise traces arranged in a single conductivelayer of the board 210. The conductive layer may, for instance, befabricated from a metallic layer; thus it may also be referred to asmetallization or interconnect layer. In some embodiments, all traces ofthe at least two supply lines 220 and of the plurality of signal linesmay be arranged in the single conductive layer of the board 210. Boardswith single conductive layer may be cheaper and more robust thanmulti-layer boards. It may therefore be possible to implement the atleast two supply lines 220 and the plurality of signal lines 230cross-over-free. However, by implementing connectors, jumpers or thelike, also non-cross-over-free implementations may be used at increasedproduction costs and reduced reliability.

In other words, the conductive lines of the first type 225 and theconductive lines of the second type 235 may comprise traces arranged ina single conductive layer of the board 210. In some embodiments, alltraces of the conductive lines of the first and second types 225, 235may be arranged in a single conductive layer of the board 210. The board210 may, for instance, comprise exactly a single conductive layer.

As will be laid out in more detail below, the recess 240 may furthercomprise an aperture connecting an outer perimeter of the board 210 andthe hole previously mentioned. Such an example is, for instance, shownin FIG. 3.

A sensor device 100 according to an embodiment may enable an easierimplementation of such a sensor device 100 into a more complex system orcomponent such as a sensor arrangement 200 according to an embodiment.In the situation depicted in FIG. 2, it is possible by orienting thesensor devices 100 in such a way that the supply terminals 110 areplaced radially inwards with respect to the sensor signal outputterminal 120 to electrically connect or couple the supply lines 220 tothe supply terminals 110 and one of the signal lines 230 to one of thesensor signal output terminals 120. Here, the lines 220, 230 arearranged over the whole angle range in the previously-described manner.However, in different embodiments, it may be possible that due toimplementing the connector another circuit element or circuit-relatedelement that the radially inward arrangement of the supply lines 220with respect to the signal lines 230 may only be valid inside an angularsector 270 comprising the plurality of sensor devices 100.

As depicted in FIG. 2, the sensor devices 100 are arranged around therecess 240, which has the shape of the circular hole with the referencepoint 130 being the center point or midpoint of the hole. In otherwords, the reference point 130 may coincide with a center point of thehole 280 or, in more general terms, coincide with a special point of therecess 240. For instance, the sensor devices may be arranged on thecomponent board 210 equidistantly with respect to the reference point130. However, the reference point 130 may be arranged inside the recess240. It is to be noted that in many embodiments the recess 240 is notarranged in such a way that the sensor devices cover the recess 240 orthe hole 280. In other words, the recess 240 is typically not designedto give a medium such as a gas, a liquid or another medium access to anyof the sensor devices. The recess 240 may be designed to accommodate acylindrical structure, for instance, a rotatable or movable magnet, arotatable or movable shaft or a current carrying wire.

A sensor device 100 according to an embodiment may, hence, comprise atleast two supply terminals 110, which are designed to couple electricalenergy at two different electrical potentials to the sensor device 100,and at least one output signal terminal 120 that provides a sensoroutput signal. The sensor device 100 may further be configured to bemountable to a component board 210 with a single interconnect layer insuch a way that a plurality of sensor devices 100 would be placedsymmetrically around a perimeter of a hole 280 or a recess 240 in thecomponent board 210, whereby all positive supply terminals 110 would beconnected to a positive supply trace in the single interconnect layer ofthe component board 210, all negative supply terminals 110 would beconnected to a negative supply trace in the single interconnect layer ofthe component board 210, and each output signal terminal 120 would beconnected to its dedicated output signal trace in the singleinterconnect layer of the component board 210, whereby no two of thesupply traces and the signal traces would be shorted.

A sensor arrangement 200 according to an embodiment may comprise a board210 comprising at least two supply lines 220, a plurality of signallines 230 and a recess 240 with a reference point 130 or center point.It may further comprise a plurality of sensor devices 100 mechanicallyaccommodated on the board 210, each sensor device 100 being electricallycoupled to the at least two supply lines 220 and to at least one signalline 230 to provide a sensor signal to the at least one signal line 230,wherein the at least two supply lines 220 are arranged radially insideof the plurality of signal lines 230 with respect to the reference point130 or the center point. Optionally, in a sensor arrangement 200 the atleast two supply lines 220 and the plurality of signal lines 230 maycomprise traces arranged in a single conductive layer of the board 210.In some cases, even all traces of the at least two supply lines 220 andof the plurality of signal lines 240 may be arranged in the singleconductive layer of the board 210.

In a sensor arrangement 200, the plurality of sensor devices 100 may bearranged around the recess 240 in the board 210. Optionally, the recess240 may comprises a hole 280 comprising the reference point 130 and anaperture 290 connecting an outer perimeter 300 of the board 210 and thehole 280.

Optionally, the sensor devices 100 may each comprise a predefinedorientation direction 260, wherein the plurality of sensor devices 100may then be oriented with respect to the reference point 130 such thatthe predefined orientation direction 260 points toward the referencepoint 130. The sensor devices may further be oriented towards thereference point 130 such that by rotating the sensor arrangement 200around the reference point 130 by an angle equal to an angle between twosensor devices 100 with respect to the reference point 130, anorientation of at least one of the two sensor devices 100 becomesidentical to the at least other one of the two sensor devices 100.Optionally, the sensor devices 100 may be identical.

For instance, a sensor arrangement 200 according to an embodiment maycomprise a board 210 comprising at least two supply lines 220, at leastthree signal lines 230 and a hole 280 with a reference point 130. It mayfurther comprise at least three sensor devices 100 mechanicallyaccommodated on the board 210 and oriented towards the reference point130, each sensor device 100 being electrically coupled to the at leasttwo supply lines 220 by at least two supply terminals 110 of the sensordevice 100 and to at least one signal line 230 by at least one sensorsignal output terminal 230 to provide a sensor signal to the at leastone signal line 230. The sensor signal may be indicative of a magneticfield acting on the sensor device 100, wherein the at least two supplylines 220 are arranged radially inside of the plurality of signal lines230 with respect to the reference point 130. The at least two supplyterminals 120 may be closer to or equally spaced from the referencepoint 130 then any sensor signal output terminals 120 of the sensordevice 100.

FIG. 3 shows a further block diagram of a sensor arrangement 200according to an embodiment in the form of a plan view of its componentboard 210. It shows a plurality of sensor devices 100, which are alsoreferred to as sensor chips, arranged around a reference point 130 andmounted in a flip-chip style or technique to a component board 210. Thecomponent board 210 comprises a recess 240 comprising a hole around acenter point, which is identical to the reference point 130. Forinstance, the sensor devices 100 or their chips and/or packages may bearranged in the case of a rectangular shape such that their longer sidesare approximately oriented radially with respect to the center point130. As a consequence, the shorter sides of the sensor devices 100 mayin this case be oriented approximately circumferentially. As aconsequence, it may be possible to place more sensor devices 100 aroundthe perimeter of the recess 240 or to reduce a diameter of a circle 250on which the sensor devices 100 are arranged.

As will be laid out in more detail below, when the arrangement 200 ispart of a magnetic current sensor, a conductor may go through the hole280 perpendicularly to the board 210 and the current through thisconductor can be measured by the magnetic sensor chips 100 via itsassociated magnetic field, provided the current is strong enough tocreate a magnetic field detectable by the sensor chips 100. In case thearrangement 200 is part of an off-axis magnetic angle sensor, a shaftmay go through the hole 280 perpendicularly to the board 210 with apermanent magnet attached to the shaft and the angular position of theshaft can be measured by the magnetic sensor chips 100.

Optionally, the component board 210 may also comprise an aperture 290connecting an outer perimeter 300 of the board 210 and the hole 280 withits reference point 130 so that the arrangement 200 can be installedmore easily around the conductor or shaft without the need to pull itover the end of the conductor or shaft.

To provide the sensor chips 100 with their electric supply, thearrangement comprises at least two supply lines 220, whereby all sensorchips 100 of the plurality of sensor chips 100 arranged around the hole280 may use these supply lines 220 as common supply lines. The sensorchips 100 comprise at least one output terminal 120, where the outputsignals of the sensor chips 100 can be tapped. A system comprising thearrangement 200 can sample or tap the sensor output signals of at leasttwo sensor chips 100 via the appropriate signal lines 230.

Implementing an embodiment of such an arrangement 200 may be interestingin the case when the sensor chips 100 cannot share common signal lines230. This may, for instance, be the case, when the sensor chips 100 arebased on simple Wheatstone bridge circuits of magneto-resistors, whoseoutput signal is a time-continuous voltage coupled to the sensor signaloutput terminal 120 of the sensor chip 100. In this case, a commonsignal line shared by more than one sensor chip 100 might short thebridge circuits of different sensor chips 100 rendering the signalsprobably useless. Therefore, in such an example, it may be advisable toimplement dedicated signal lines 230 for each sensor chip or—in otherwords—to implement the signal lines 230 such that each signal line 230is coupled only to one sensor device 100 to provide the sensor signal tothe respective signal line 230.

This leads to a plurality of signal lines 230 being implemented, whichtypically require a lot of space on the component board 210. In cases,when the reference point 130 is located inside the recess 240 or thehole of the component board 210, the recess 240 may severely hamper thewiring of the sensor devices 100. For instance, as will be laid out inmore detail below, the recess 240 may be used to accommodate a magnet ora current-carrying wire of a larger system comprising the sensorarrangement 200. However, in applications, it may be desirable to locatethe sensor device 100 as close as possible to the reference point sincethe sensor signals obtainable by the sensor devices 100 may becomelarger and an overall size of the sensor arrangement may eventually bereducible. A sensor arrangement 200 according to an embodiment may helpto overcome these contradictory design goals by providing ring-shapedsupply lines around the reference point 130, which may be closer to therecess 240 than the signal lines, which may be significantly larger innumber. By using a sensor arrangement 200, a designer may have morespace to place the sensor lines 120 or—in more general terms—theconductive lines of the second type 235 outside the conductive lines ofa first type 225.

Due to a typical design of such an implementation, space is oftenavailable only to a very limited extent between the sensor chips 100 andthe reference point 130 due to the hole 280 in the component board 210,it may be more advisable to arrange the signal terminals 120 such thatthe signal lines 230 can be placed at larger radial distance than thesupply lines 220 from the reference point 130. At larger radial distancefrom the reference point 130 there is often more space available. Thismay result in the arrangement 200 of terminals 110, 120, supply lines220 and signal lines 230 as outlined above. Only some of the supplyterminals 110 have been marked in FIG. 3 by their reference sign forclarity reasons only.

Naturally, in other embodiments the sensor device 100 or sensor chips100 may comprise more than just one sensor signal output terminal 120.Hence, in these cases, the sensor devices 100 may comprise a pluralityof sensor signal output terminals 120. Naturally, the number of signallines 230 may be equal to the total number of sensor signal outputterminals 120 used by all sensor devices 100 of the arrangement 200.

By using an embodiment, it may be possible to place the sensor chips 100very close to the reference point 130, since no extra space has to bereserved for conductor traces or lines 220, 230 on the board 210. As aconsequence, it may be possible to place the chips 100 right next to aninner perimeter 310 of the recess 240, which may increases the signalstrength of the sensor devices 100 due to a more intense interactionbetween the conductor or shaft or magnet attached to the shaft and thesensor elements of the devices 100 caused by the smaller distance to thereference point 130.

Additionally or alternatively, the component board 210 may only comprisea single layer of conductors, because there crossings may be avoidedbetween conductor traces on the component board 210. Moreover, thisarrangement 200 may work for an arbitrary number of sensor chips 100arranged around the reference point 130, such as N=2, 3, 4, 5, . . . ,20, . . . sensor chips.

The conductor traces on the component board 210 may furthermore have alarger or maximum possible spacing from one another and, thus, theaccuracy requirements for the traces may be relaxed compared toconventional implementations. Thus, the board 210 may be produced withsimpler and cheaper etching and patterning processes. The allowablethicker traces and the wider pitches between traces may also allow forthicker traces, which might make the system more robust in terms of ahigher mechanical strength, less process variations due to coarserstructures, and smaller resistances of conductor traces, which may leadto more accurate output signals. Moreover, if the conductor traces haveless resistance, it may be possible to reduce the input and outputresistances of the sensor circuits or sensor elements on the sensorchips 100 and this may lead to a larger bandwidth of the sensor system.

In a conventional implementation using a multilayer component board, itis simple to avoid crossings of conductor traces in individual layers.However, the board is typically more complex and, hence, more expensiveto fabricate. Alternatively, one could use a digital communicationprotocol to communicate the sensor output signals of all sensor chips ona common signal line. Yet this may require a communication interface oneach sensor chip, which adds extra costs per sensor chip. Besides thecommunication takes extra time and needs to be done in atime-multiplexed way, which may reduce bandwidth and increases signaldelay time. By using an embodiment it may, therefore, be possible toenhance the bandwidth, reduce the delay time without significantlyadding costs to the individual chips 100.

FIG. 4 shows a simplified block diagram of a sensor device 100 accordingto an embodiment, which may, for instance, be used in the arrangementshown in FIG. 2 in more detail. The emphasis of FIG. 4 lies on thepositions of the sensor terminals 110, 120 of the sensor chip 100. Thesensor chip 100 comprises a half-bridge circuit 320 comprising twosensor elements 330-1, 330-2 forming a series connection with a node 340between the sensor elements 330-1, 330-2. The node 340 is coupled to thesensor signal output terminal 120 of the device 100.

The sensor elements 330 are or comprise magnetic field sensor elements350, which may, for instance, be magneto-resistors or magneto-resistivesensor elements (XMR-sensor elements), such as anisotropicmagneto-resistive (AMR) sensor elements, giant magneto-resistive (GMR)sensor elements, tunneling magneto-resistive (TMR) sensor elements, orcolossal magneto-resistive (CMR) sensor elements.

However, the sensor elements 320 shown in FIG. 4 further comprise amagnetically pinned layer, such as GMR, TMR or CMR sensor elements,which are oriented in an antiparallel direction denoted by the arrows inFIG. 4. In other words, they comprise magnetic reference directionsenclosing an angle of essentially 180°. As will be shown in more detailbelow, in the case of AMR sensor elements, the magnetic referencedirections of these sensor elements 320 enclose an angle of essentially90° such that their reference directions are essentially perpendicularto one another. Furthermore, they typically do not comprise a pinnedlayer. Their reference directions may, for instance, be defined byso-called barber pole structures.

FIG. 4 represents a mixture of layout and circuit schematic. Withrespect to the layout, the rectangular shape of the chip 100 is shownand the circles or disks denote the size, shape, and positions ofcontact pads for the terminals 110, 120, which may be implemented asbond-pads or pads, onto which bumps can make contact in a flip-chipassembly. Hence, FIG. 4 shows the positions of the sensor terminals 110,120 of the device 100.

However, the two resistors illustrating the sensor elements 330 and theinterconnect wires typically do not denote the exact shape and positionsof the elements, but only their connectivity. In other words, the sensorelements 300 can be place elsewhere on the chip compared to thepositions of the sensor elements 330 shown in FIG. 4, but they may beconnected to the terminals and between themselves as shown in FIG. 4.The sensor chip 100 comprises a first supply terminal 100-1, forinstance, for a negative supply voltage (negative supply terminal110-1), a second supply terminal 100-2, for instance, for a positivesupply voltage (positive supply terminal 110-2), and the sensor signaloutput terminal 120, also referred to as the output signal terminal,along with the first and second sensor elements 330-1, 330-2, coupled toone another by on-chip interconnect wires.

As shown in FIG. 4, the supply terminals 110 are on the left side and atthe center of the device 100. Yet the signal output 120 is at the rightside of the device 100. In other words, the supply terminals 110 arecloser to the reference point 130 than any of the sensor signal outputterminals 120.

For a flip-chip assembly it may also be advisable that the terminals110, 120 are not all close to a single line to allow a more stablemounting position. Otherwise, the chip 100 might not stand stably on itsbumps. Therefore, it may be advisable to arrange the terminals 110, 120on different horizontal and vertical positions as shown in FIG. 4, wheretwo contacts 110-1, 120 are in left and right lower corners,respectively, and one contact 110-2 is at the top edge of the device 100or its die.

To be able to place the sensor chip 100 with minimum tilt on thecomponent board 210 (not shown in FIG. 4) in order to detect the propermagnetic field components and to have best sensor accuracy, it may beadvisable to place the contact pads 110, 120 close to the corners inorder to have maximum spacing between them so that small differences inthe height of the bumps may give only small tilts.

Before further devices will be explained in more detail, a half-bridgecircuit 320 and a full-bridge circuit will be described in more detailwith respect to FIGS. 5 and 6.

Embodiments may refer to magneto-resistive sensor elements 320 coupledor connected to one another to form one or more half-bridge circuits 320as depicted in the circuit diagram of FIG. 5 and a full-bridge circuit360 as depicted in the circuit diagram of FIG. 6. The half-bridgecircuit 320 shown in FIG. 5 comprises two sensor elements 330-1, 330-2,which may, for instance, be implemented as magneto-resistors ormagneto-resistive sensor elements with pinned layers. In this case, thetop resistor (sensor element 330-2), which is connected between thepositive supply terminal 110-2 being supplied with the voltage Vsupplyduring operation and the output signal terminal 120 (“Output”) comprisesa reference direction along the negative x′-direction in the layer ofthe sensor chip. In contrast, the bottom resistor (sensor element330-1), which is connected between output signal terminal 120 and thenegative supply terminal 110-1 (“ground”) coupled, for instance, duringoperation to a reference potential such as ground, comprises a referencedirection along the positive x′-direction. As outlined before, thereference direction of the magneto-resistive sensor elements 330 withpinned layers may be defined by the direction of a permanentmagnetization of the pinned layer, which may, for instance, bemagnetized during the manufacturing of the sensor element.

FIG. 6 shows a circuit diagram of a full-bridge circuit 360 comprising aparallel connection of two half-bridge circuits 320-1, 320-2. The firsthalf-bridge circuit 320-1 is essentially identical to the half-bridgecircuit 320 shown in FIG. 5, while the second half-bridge circuit 320-2comprises magnetizations of the pinned layers of its sensor elements330′, which are anti-parallel to the ones of the first half-bridgecircuit 320-1. Therefore, the reference direction of the sensor element330′-1 of the second half-bridge circuit 320-2 is anti-parallel to theone of sensor element 330-1 of the first half-bridge circuit 320-1. Thesame is also true for the reference directions of the sensor elements330′-2 and 330-2 of the two half-bridge circuits 320-2, 320-1,respectively.

Although the supply terminals 110 of the two half-bridge circuits may beelectrically coupled as illustrated in FIG. 6, the full-bridge circuit360 and, hence, the sensor device 100 may comprise a plurality of sensorsignal output terminals 120-1, 120-2 of the two half-bridge circuits320-1, 320-2 coupled to the nodes 340-1, 340-2, respectively.

In other words, by adding a second half-bridge circuit 320-2 essentiallyidentical to the first one 320-1 with the reference directions ofpositive and negative x′ direction being swapped, a combination of bothhalf-bridge circuits 320 is called a full-bridge circuit 360. The outputsignal of the full-bridge circuit 340 may be tapped between the twooutput terminals 120-1, 120-2 of the half-bridge circuits 320-1, 320-2,respectively.

Naturally, for instance in the case of magneto-resistive sensorelements, each of the two sensor elements 330 may be split up in aplurality of (magneto-resistive) sensor elements and being connected inseries, in parallel or in a combination thereof. Thereby they may haveidentical reference directions or anti-parallel ones. In the latter casethe magnetic sensitivity of the total sum of resistors may be reducedbecause the two anti-parallel reference directions cancel out.

Instead of +/−x′-directions any other set of two anti-paralleldirections may also be used. Often one uses systems with half- orfull-bridge circuits having +/−x′-reference directions and half- orfull-bridge circuits having +/−y′-reference directions, where x′ and y′direction are mutually perpendicular. Examples of magneto-resistivesensor elements with pinned layers are, for instance, GMR (giantMR=giant magneto-resisitve), TMR (tunnelling MR), and CMR (colossal MR),amongst others.

Besides these sensor elements, magneto-resistors without a pinned layer,such as permalloy stripes or AMRs (anisotropic MR) may also be used. Thereference directions of AMRs may, for instance, be defined by directionof the current flow through the sensor elements and this may be definedby barber pole stripes on permalloy stripes to name just one example. Ahalf-bridge circuit 320 of AMRs may be similar to the ones describedabove, yet the reference directions may be perpendicular of the upperand lower resistors 330 instead of being anti-parallel.

In contrast to the sensor chip 100 shown in FIG. 4, FIG. 7 shows acircuit diagram of a sensor chip 100 according to an embodimentcomprising two half-bridge circuits 320-1, 320-2 similar to the oneshown in FIG. 4. Besides the supply terminals 110-1, 110-2 for thenegative supply voltage (negative supply terminal) and for the positivesupply voltage (positive supply terminal), the sensor chip 100 comprisestwo sensor signal output terminals 120-1, 120-2 for the first and secondhalf-bridge circuits 320-1, 320-2, respectively, which also correspondto the nodes 340-1, 340-2 of the two half-bridge circuits 320. Bothoutput signal terminals 120 are arranged further away from the referencepoint 130 or—in other words—on the right side of the supply terminals110-1 and 110-2 in FIG. 7. As described before, FIG. 7 illustrates theposition of sensor terminals of the two half-bridge circuits 320.Furthermore, FIG. 7 illustrates the on-chip interconnecting wires usedto electrically couple the sensor elements 330 to the terminals 110,120.

The specific arrangement of the terminals 110, 120 of FIG. 7 alsoenlarges or even maximizes the distances between all neighboring contactpads 110, 120. Larger distances may reduce or minimize the risk ofaccidental solder bridges, when the chip 100 is soldered to thecomponent board 210 (not shown in FIG. 7). The situation is similar whenthe sensor chip 100 comprises a full-bridge circuit 360 instead of twohalf-bridge circuits 320. This situation is shown in FIG. 8.

FIG. 8 shows a simplified block diagram of a sensor chip 100 accordingto a further embodiment. The sensor chip 100 differs from the one shownin FIG. 7, for instance, with respect to the reference directions of thesensor elements 330. While the sensor elements 330 of the firsthalf-bridge circuit 320-1 and the reference directions of the sensorelements 330′ of the second half-bridge circuit 320-2 of the sensor chip100 of FIG. 7 were essentially oriented perpendicular to one anotherforming two essentially independent half-bridge circuits 320, referencedirections of the sensor elements 330, 330′ of the half-bridge circuits320 of FIG. 8 are essentially parallel and anti-parallel oriented. As aconsequence, the two half-bridge circuits 320 may be used as afull-bridge circuit 360. Nevertheless, also FIG. 8 illustrates thepositions of the sensor terminals of the full-bridge circuit 360comprised in the sensor device 100 as well as the on-chip interconnectwires used to electrically couple the sensor elements 330 to theterminals 110, 120.

FIG. 9 shows a simplified block diagram of a sensor chip 100 comprisingtwo full-bridge circuits 360-1, 360-2 illustrating the positions of thesensor terminals 110, 120 of the two full bridge-circuits 360. Thesensor chip 100 comprises two supply terminals 110-1 (negative supplyterminal) and 110-2 (positive supply terminal) and four sensor signaloutput terminals 120-1, . . . , 120-4. All four output signal terminals120 are right of the two supply terminals 110 or—in other words—fartheraway from the reference point 130.

To be a little more precise, the sensor device 100 shown here comprisesfour half-bridge circuits 320-1, . . . , 320-4 forming the twofull-bridge circuits 360-1, 360-2. The sensor elements 330 of the firstand second half-bridge circuits 320-1, 320-2 are parallel oranti-parallel oriented along a horizontal direction shown in FIG. 9.These two half-bridge circuits 320-1, 320-2 form the first full-bridgecircuit 360-1 with its first and second output signal terminals 120-1,120-2. In contrast to the other output signal terminals 120-1, . . . ,120-4 of the sensor device 100, the first output signal terminal 120-1does not simultaneously form or is located at the position of thecorresponding node 340-1 of the half-bridge circuit 320-1.

Using on-chip interconnect wires the sensor devices 330 of the firstfull-bridge circuit 360 are coupled to the already described supplyterminals 110-1, 110-2 and the corresponding output signal terminals120. The same is also true for the second full-bridge circuit 360-2,comprising a third half-bridge circuit 320-3, and a fourth half-bridgecircuit 320-4, each comprising a node 340-3, 340-4, respectively, whichare located at the positions of the third and fourth output signalterminals 120-3, 120-4, respectively. As shown in FIG. 9, the on-chipinterconnect wires also electrically couple the sensor elements 330 tothe supply terminals 110 and the respective output signal terminals 120.

Optionally, one or more terminals such as lands may be added, whichserve only or mainly the purpose of providing additional mechanicalstability. Optionally, their electrical properties may be redundant as,for instance, shown in FIG. 9. In other words, an optional terminal110-3 may be added or implemented to provide mechanical stability and,optionally, to provide an additional electrical contact for the sensordevice 100. The same is also true for terminal 110-4 may be implementedmainly for mechanical stability purposes and, optionally, also toprovide an additional electrical contact for the device 100.

Naturally, as indicated by reference sign X, additional terminals,terminal-like structures or stabilizing structures may be implemented,which do not have an electrical contact to the circuitry of the sensordevice 100, but are merely implemented to provide additional mechanicalstability. The stabilizing structure X may, for instance, be implementedas a land, an additional pin or any other terminal or terminal-likestructure which is, however, internally not connected. In other words,the stabilizing structures such as lands, bumps, solder dots, leads orother stabilizing structures may be implemented for stability reasonsonly, which do not have a galvanic contact inside the circuitry of thesensor device 100. In other words, they are electrically function-free.

FIG. 9 shows an example of a layout of a sensor device 100 having askewed intersecting plane 160 subdividing the sensor device 100 into twoportions 170-1, 170-2 such that the intersecting plane 160 is notparallel to any of the sides of the sensor device 100. In contrast tothe situation shown in FIG. 8, the plane 160 intersects the longer sidesof the sensor device 100 at an angle different from 90°.

In terms of their reference orientations, the sensor elements 330 of thesecond full-bridge circuit 360-2 are also oriented parallel andanti-parallel with respect to one another. However, the referencedirections of the sensor elements 330 of the two different full-bridgecircuits 360 are essentially perpendicular to one another as illustratedby the arrows in FIG. 9. As a consequence, the sensor device 100 may becapable of providing at its four output signal terminals 120 sensorsignals indicative of both a sine- and a cosine-contribution having aphase shift of approximately 90° in case of magnetic field sensorelements 330 using the -pinned layer to define their referencedirections. Hence, the sensor device 100 may be a sensor device capableof detecting an angle of 360° of a magnetic field acting on the sensordevice 100. In contrast, the sensor device 100 of FIG. 8 only provides asingle or the previously-mentioned component signals. The sensor device100 of FIG. 7 may be used, in contrast to that, as a 360°-sensor.

In the following, the concept of footprint of packages will beconsidered more closely. When a sensor package is mounted on a componentboard 210, it typically serves two purposes. The component board 210holds the sensor package 100 in place and, hence, accommodates itmechanically, while it also establishes and enables electric contact ofthe sensor circuit 100 with other circuits via fine conductor traces onthe surface of the component board 210. In other words, the board 210may electrically couple the sensor circuit or sensor device 100 to othercomponents and circuits.

Component boards 210 may comprise several conductive layers, which maybe formed, for instance, from metallic materials. These layers maytherefore be also referred to as metallization layers or interconnectlayers. A conductive layer may, for instance, be formed on a top mainsurface of the component board 210. Optionally, a further conductivelayer may be formed on bottom main surface. One or more additionalconductive layers may be implemented within the component board 210between the top and bottom main surfaces. Often these conductive layersare made from copper (Cu) and patterned via etching processes. However,the more conductive layers a component board comprises, the moreexpensive it may become to manufacture it. This is even more so, whenthe lateral geometrical tolerances need to be kept small, for instance,smaller than 75 μm, smaller than 50 μm or even smaller than 25 μm.

Embodiments may focus on methods and implementation how to use cheapercomponent boards 210, which may only comprise a single conductive layer.Although this conductive layer may be on any of both main surfaces ofthe board or even in-between, it may be more common to mount thepackages on the same main surface, on which the conductive layer isarranged. Often this side is referred to as the top surface.

Sensor packages 100 may be implemented as surface mounted or surfacemountable devices (SMD), which may be placed on the top surface of theboard 210. The leads, lands or terminals of the sensor package 100 maytouch in this case the conductive layer. The semiconductor manufactureroften recommends in this situation a footprint for each sensor package,which defines geometrical rules and shapes of how the conductor tracesof the supply and signal lines may be shaped and placed in order toachieve reliable contact between conductor traces on the component board210 and the sensor terminals 110, 120 of the sensor package 100.

In terms of the design, it might be advisable on the one side to definethe conductor traces to be sufficiently large to carry the electriccurrent and/or to have small enough resistance. Moreover, it may beadvisable to define the solder interfaces between the conductor tracesand the leads or lands of the sensor package to comply to several rulesin order to be reliable.

On the other hand, it may be advisable to design the pitches betweenneighboring conductor traces to be wide enough to prevent accidentalshorts between them. In this context, it might be interesting toconsider that the leads of the sensor package 100 may be formed to bethree-dimensional objects having comparably complicated shapes, forinstance, comprising gull-wing-shaped structures. Moreover, the lands ofthe sensor packages 100 may comprise more than one surface exposed sothat the sensor package 100 may has to be regarded as athree-dimensional object itself. However, the footprint is typically atwo-dimensional object or structure and can, therefore, define thecontact arrangement. In the case of leaded packages, which are differentfrom SMD-packages, the component board 210 typically requires smallholes, into which the leads of the leaded packages 100 are insertedprior to soldering. Embodiments may also apply to leaded packages, sinceonly the footprint may be relevant in terms of the terminals 110, 120 ofembodiments.

So far only the positions of supply and signal terminals 110, 120 ofsensor chips 100 configured for flip-chip mounting have been described.Yet the same principle may also apply to SMD-sensor packages 100, as,for instance, shown in FIG. 10a and FIG. 10b for N=3 sensor packages100.

FIG. 10a shows a schematic plan view of a sensor arrangement 200according to an embodiment comprising a component board 210, onto whichthree SMD sensor packages or sensor devices 100-1, 100-2, 100-3 arearranged around a reference point 130, which represents a central pointor midpoint of a hole 280 of a recess 240. FIG. 10b shows the schematicplan view of FIG. 10a without the three SMD sensor devices 100.

The sensor devices 100 are arranged at angles of approximately 120° withrespect to one another so that the sensor devices 100 are equallydistributed with respect to the angle around the reference point 130.

The sensor devices 100 are coupled to the component board 210 andelectrically connected to the supply lines 220 and, with respect to thesupply lines 220, radially outwards arranged signal lines 230. Thesensor devices 100 are coupled to the conductive lines 225, 235 of theboard 210 by solder dots 315, only some of which are denoted by theirreference signs in FIG. 10b for clarity reasons only. As describedbefore, each of the sensor devices 100 comprises at least two supplyterminals 110, 110-2, which are coupled to the respective supply lines220. For the sake of simplicity only, the terminals are only referred toby their reference signs with respect to the third device 100-3.However, the sensor devices 100 as used in the sensor arrangement 200 ofFIG. 10a are all identical and arranged in such a way that by rotatingthe sensor devices 100 by approximately 120°, the sensor devices 100will simply be exchanged without affecting the actual functionality ofthe sensor arrangement 200, since the sensor devices are not onlyidentical, but also oriented such that the previously-described rotationrenders them invariant. Naturally, this is not necessary in otherembodiments, but merely represents an option.

The sensor devices 100 further comprise a sensor signal output terminal120 which is further away from the reference point 130 than any of thesupply terminals 110. Each of the sensor signal output terminals 120 iscoupled to a different signal line 230 of a plurality of signal lines230. Apart from the previously-described supply terminals 110 and thesensor signal output terminal 120, the sensor devices 100 furthercomprise inactive or internally uncoupled terminals, which are notcapable of providing a supply voltage or to carry a sensor signal.However, these inactive terminals may improve mechanical stability ofthe package soldered to the component board.

The sensor devices 100 comprise as housing 140 a molded body and anelectrically-conducting surface 370, which is also referred to as diepaddle. The die paddle, for instance, may be used to ground a die 380 ofthe sensor device 100 comprising the actual sensor elements 330. Theconductive die paddle may be implemented so that the die paddle and theleads can be fabricated from a single metallic leadframe and at leastone lead is coupled with the die paddle to hold the die in place duringthe molding procedure, where the die and at least parts of the diepaddle are covered with mold compound.

The two most inner terminals, leads or pins of the housing 140 as shownin FIGS. 10a and 10b are in direct electrical contact to the surface 370allowing, for instance, to electrically couple the surface 370 to groundpotential as mentioned before.

The actual layout of the die 380 corresponds to that of the sensordevice 100 as shown in FIG. 4, although instead of directly implementingthe terminals 110, 120, the die 380 comprises a plurality of bond pads390, enabling an electrical contact to the terminals 110, 120 by bondwires 400. In other words, in the embodiment shown in FIGS. 10a and 10b, the sensor chip or die 380 is coupled to the terminals 110, 120 of thesensor device 100 by the terminals of the actual sensor chip or die 380,which are implemented as bond pads 390.

As the plan view of the component board 210 further shows, the recess240 further comprises an aperture 290 connecting the hole 280 with itsreference point 130 and the outer perimeter 300 of the component board210. The sensor devices 100 are arranged to be in close contact with theinner perimeter 310 of the hole 280 to allow a magnetic field sourceoperating in or in the vicinity of the hole 280 to couple asufficiently-high magnetic flux into the sensor devices 100 to help tostrengthen a signal-to-noise-ratio compared to an implementation withthe sensor devices 100 being further outwardly arranged with respect tothe reference point 130.

In other words, FIG. 10a shows SMD-packages 100 with leads, yet alsoleadless SMD-packages 100 may be used here. The SMD-packages 100 arealigned so that the two rows 150-1, 150-2 of leads 110, 120 per package100 are approximately oriented along the radial direction. The twoinnermost leads 120 coupled per package 100 are supply terminals 120,whereby the leads on both rows can be contacted with the respectivesupply terminal 120 or only on one row. In other words, for the twoterminals of positive and negative supply there may be four leadsavailable, although here only two are actually used. The signal leads120 and the signal lines 230 are at larger radial distance from thereference point 130 than the supply leads 110 and supply lines 110.

Naturally, other examples of SMD packages may also be used, forinstance, packages comprising leads or lands as terminals. FIG. 10cshows a perspective view of a SMD package for a sensor device 100according to an embodiment. The package shown in FIG. 10c comprisesleads 550 which may be used to directly mount and electrically contactthe package and, hence, the sensor device 100 onto the board 210 (notshown in FIG. 10c ).

FIG. 10d shows a similar perspective view of another SMD package for asensor device 100 also comprising leads 550, which allow the package tobe directly mounted onto the board 210. FIG. 10e shows a perspectiveview of a further SMD package for a sensor device 100 which does notcomprise leads. It does, however, comprise lands 560 which may also beused to directly mount and electrically contact the package and, hence,the sensor device 100 onto the board 210 (also not shown in FIG. 10e ).

In contrast to sensor devices comprising a package, in which theposition of the terminals such as bumps, leads, lands and solder dotsmay determine the question of electrical contact and mechanicalstability, in the case of a flip-chip implementation of a sensor device100, the terminals on the die or chip of the sensor device 100 itselfmay determine the previous characteristics. While in a packagedimplementation of a sensor device 100, an electrical connection betweenthe terminals of the package and the die or chip of the sensor die hasto be established, for instance, by using bond wires, implementing bondwires may eventually be skipped using the flip-chip technique.

In the case of a package sensor device 100, the terminals of the packagefulfill the same functions than the terminals of the chip have in thecase of a flip-chip device. For instance, in the case of a packagedsensor device, the positions of the terminals on the die may be chosenessentially arbitrarily as long as the terminals on the die areelectrically coupled to the terminals of the package, for instance, byusing bond wires. Naturally, in a real-life implementation, certainlimitations may exist in terms of positioning the terminals on the diewith respect to the terminals of the package, as, for instance, it maybe advisable to prevent bond wires from crossing in the plan view of thedie.

Similarly, it is possible to electrically contact or couple twohalf-bridge circuits 320-1, 320-2 or a full-bridge circuit 360 (notshown in FIGS. 11a and 11b ). FIG. 11a shows a schematic plan view of asensor arrangement 200 comprising a component board 210 with threeSMD-style sensor devices 100 accommodating sensor elements 330 in theform of AMR-resistors. FIG. 11b shows the schematic plan view of FIG.11a without the three SMD sensor devices 100. They may be implemented asmagneto-resistors without a pinned layer. The straight lines inside theresistor symbols denote the direction of current flow through the sensorelements 330, which may, for instance, be defined by barber-polestripes. Here the die paddle or surface 370 is electrically tied to thecenter pins on both sides of the chip package 100, which may be used toconnect the device 100 to ground.

Since the sensor devices 100 comprise two half-bridge circuits 320 each,the number of sensor signal output terminals 120 actively used is higherby a factor 2 compared to the implementation of FIGS. 10a and 10b .Hence, also the number of signal lines 230 is higher—to be precise, by anumber of 2—than in the previously described embodiment.

FIG. 12a shows an alternative embodiment of a sensor arrangement 200,which is similar to the one shown in FIGS. 11a and 11b . FIG. 12a alsoshows a plan view of a sensor arrangement 200 comprising a componentboard 210, on which three SMD-style sensor devices 100 are arranged,each comprising two half-bridge circuits based on AMR-sensor elements330. FIG. 12b again shows the corresponding plan view of FIG. 12awithout the sensor devices 100.

Here one signal output terminal 120 has the same distance to thereference point 130 as one supply terminal 110. As a consequence, thesensor chip 100 with or without its sensor package may be configured tobe arranged with respect to the reference point 130 in the common planedefined by the terminals and the board 210 such that no footprintportion of the at least one signal output terminal 120 is closer to thereference point 130 than any footprint portion of the supply terminals110.

On the one hand, the arrangement 200 may comprise a larger distance ofthe sensor chips or sensor packages 100 from the central hole 280 andits reference point 130 compared to the previously described sensorarrangement. The approximately circular ground line as part of thesupply line 220 may be placed between the hole 280 and the sensorpackages 100. On the other hand, this arrangement 200 may offer thepossibility of using three of the six leads or terminals per package 100for signal output terminals 120. However, in the embodiment shown, onlytwo are used.

The sensor package 100 as shown in FIG. 13a each have two rows 150 ofterminals. The supply contacts 110 are in only one of the two rows andimmediately neighboring terminals.

FIG. 13a shows a schematic block diagram of a sensor arrangement 200comprising three SMD-sensor packages 100 each comprising two full-bridgecircuits 360 (reference sign not used in FIG. 13a for clarity reasonsonly) of magneto-resistive sensor elements 330 with pinned layers. Forinstance, the sensor elements may be TMR-based sensor elements 330. Thesensor packages 100 may be identically implemented and arranged andoriented with respect to the reference point 130 to be rotationallyinvariant with respect to a rotation of approximately 120°. FIG. 13bshows the corresponding plan view of FIG. 13a without the sensor devices100.

Each SMD-sensor package 100 comprises six terminals, which may beimplemented as leads or pins, two of which are used for power supply(supply terminals 110) and four of which are used for output signals(sensor signal output terminals 120). The arrangement 200 avoidscrossings of conductor traces on the component board 210. As aconsequence, a single conductive or interconnect layer on the board 210may be enough to establish all necessary electrical contacts.

The sensor device 100 may, for instance, comprise an arrangement ofterminals 110, 120 of at least one sensor chip or die 380—with orwithout sensor package—, which comprises at least one sensor element 330or sensor circuit. It may further comprise at least two supply terminals110 configured to supply the sensor element 330 or sensor circuit withelectric power. At least one signal output terminal 110 may beconfigured to provide the output signal of the sensor element 330 orsensor circuit. The at least two supply terminals 110 and the at leastone signal terminal 120 may be contactable by a footprint in a plane,wherein the footprint portions of the at least two supply terminals 110and of the at least one signal terminal 120 are arranged in at least onerow 150. The sensor chip 380 with or without its sensor package may beconfigured to be arranged with respect to a reference point 130 in theplane such that no footprint portion of the at least one signal outputterminal 120 is a member of the at least one row comprising the supplyterminals 110 and is closer to the reference point 130 than anyfootprint portion of the supply terminals 110 of this same row 150.

An arrangement of terminals of at least one sensor chip or die 380 withor without sensor package 100 may, for instance, comprise at least onesensor element 330 or sensor circuit, at least two supply terminals 110configured to supply the sensor element 330 or sensor circuit withelectric power and at least one signal output terminal 120 configured toprovide the output signal of the sensor element 330 or sensor circuit.The at least two supply terminals 110 and the at least one signalterminal 120 may be contactable by a footprint in a plane, wherein thesensor chip or die 380 with or without its sensor package may beconfigured to be arranged with respect to the reference point 130 in theplane such that no footprint portion of the at least one signal outputterminal 120 is closer to the reference point 130 than any footprintportion of the supply terminals 110.

Optionally, the main surface of the sensor chip 380 with or withoutsensor package may be parallel to the plane. Moreover, optionally, allfootprint portions of the at least two supply terminals 110 may becloser to the reference point 130 than any footprint portion of the atleast one signal output terminal 120. Optionally, the at least onesignal output terminal 120 may be coupled to the output (node 340) of ahalf-bridge circuit 320 comprising magneto-resistors 330 on the at leastone sensor chip or die 380 with or without sensor package. Optionally,the at least one signal output terminal 120 may comprise at least twosignal output terminals 120. For instance, the signal output terminal120 may be directly coupled with the corresponding node 340 arranged inbetween two magneto-resistive sensor elements (magneto-resistors 330).

As outlined before, the at least one sensor element 330 may be or maycomprise a magnetic field sensor element. Apart from the previouslymentioned magneto-resistive sensor elements 330, they may further comefrom a group comprising Hall plates, vertical Hall effect devices orsensor elements, magnetic field effect transistors (MAG-FETs) andmagneto-resistors (magneto-resistive sensor elements). Some of thesemagnetic sensor elements 330 may comprise at least one magneticallypinned layer. Examples of these sensor elements comprise, for instance,GMR-, TMR- and CMR-based sensor elements 330. However, also sensorelements 330 without pinned layers may naturally be implemented, towhich, amongst others, AMR-based sensor elements 330 belong.

Optionally, the magneto-resistors or magneto-resistive sensor elementsmay be connected to at least one half-bridge circuit 320 or to at leastone full-bridge circuit 360 or to at least two half-bridge circuits 320or to at least two full-bridge circuits 360, to name just a fewexamples. Optionally, the at least one sensor chip or die 380 or sensorpackage 100 may comprise two or more sensor chips 380 or sensor packages100 arranged on a component board 210 around a reference point 130. Thetwo or more sensor chips or dies 380 may be mounted using aflip-chip-technique on the component board 210. Naturally, the two ormore sensor chips or dies 380 may also be housed in leaded or leadlessSMD packages or even in leaded packages for through hole mounting. Thecomponent board 210 may comprise conductor traces or lines 220, 230 tocontact the terminals 210, 220 of the two or more sensor chips or dies380 or the sensor packages 100.

The conductor traces used to contact output signal terminals of the twoor more sensor chips or dies 380 or sensor packages 100 may be designedto not cross or overlap or touch in a plan view onto the main surface ofthe component board 210. All conductor traces used to contact the outputsignal terminals of the two or more sensor chips or dies 380 or sensorpackages 100 may, for instance, comprise parts of no more than oneconductive or interconnect layer of the component board 210. However,the board 210 may comprise other parts like jumpers.

Optionally, the two or more sensor chips or dies 380 or sensor packages100 may be arranged around a recess 240 or a hole 280 in the componentboard 210. The component board 210 may further comprise an aperture 290between its perimeter 300 and the hole 280, which may be part of therecess 240.

Moreover, an embodiment may further comprise a sensor system comprisingat least three sensor chips or dies 380 with or without sensor packagesor corresponding housings 140. In other words, the system may comprise,for instance, three or more sensor devices 100.

Each sensor chip, die 380 or device 100—with or without sensor packageor housing—may comprise at least two supply terminals 110. Moreover,each sensor chip or die 380 with or without a sensor package maycomprise at least one signal output terminal 120 capable of providing asignal indicative of a strength, direction and/or other parameters of amagnetic field acting on the respective sensor chip or die 380 (with orwithout its sensor package). The at least two supply terminals 110 andthe at least one signal output terminal 120 of the at least three sensorchips 380 (with or without sensor packages) or sensor devices 100 may becoupled to respective footprint portions on the main surface of acomponent board 210. The at least three sensor chips 380 or sensorpackages 100 may be arranged on a component board 210 around a referencepoint 130 in such a way that for each sensor chip or die 380 (with orwithout sensor package or housing) there is no signal terminal 120closer to the reference point 130 than the at least two supply terminals110.

Optionally, the sensor elements 330 on all of the at least three sensorchips or dies 380 may be oriented in such a way with respect to thereference point 130 that their orientations can become identical, whenthey are rotated by the same angle as their positions are rotated aroundthe reference point 130. The positions of the sensor devices 100 or itsdies 380 may be invariant under a rotation in some embodiments.

Embodiments may, therefore, relate to a terminal arrangement of a sensorchip or a package. For instance, a sensor arrangement 200 according toan embodiment may comprise a board 210 comprising at least two supplylines 220, at least three signal lines 230 and a hole 280 with areference point 130. It may further comprise at least three sensordevices 100 mechanically accommodated on the board 210 and orientedtoward the reference point 130, each sensor device 100 beingelectrically coupled to the at least two supply lines 220 by at leasttwo supply terminals 110 of the sensor device 100 and to at least onesignal line 230 by at least one sensor signal output terminal 230 toprovide a sensor signal to the at least one signal line 230, wherein thesensor signal may be indicative of a magnetic field or a propertythereof, such as its strength and/or its direction, acting on the sensordevice 100.The at least two supply lines 220 may be arranged radiallyinside of the plurality of signal lines 230 with respect to thereference point 130. The at least two supply terminals 110 may be closerto the reference point 130 then any sensor signal output terminals 120of the sensor devices 100.

Embodiments have a wide range of possible applications. Examples come,for instance, from the field of magnetic sensor systems. Such a sensorsystem may, for instance, comprise several sensor chips or sensorpackages 100 arranged on a circuit board around a center. FIG. 14 showsa perspective view of a first example of a sensor system 500 comprisinga sensor arrangement 200 according to an embodiment. The arrangement 200comprises a board 210 in the form of a printed circuit board (PCB)mechanically accommodating a plurality of sensor devices 100. The board210 comprises a hole 280, through which a shaft 510 with a diametricallymagnetized magnet 520 attached to it is mounted. The magnet 520 isarranged such that the magnetic field caused by the magnet 520 acts onthe devices 100. The board 210 further holds an evaluation circuit 530,to which the sensor devices 520 are coupled to receive the correspondingsensor signals. The reference point 130 (not shown in FIG. 14) may, forinstance, be the center point of the hole 280 (recess 240).

FIG. 15 shows a perspective view and FIG. 16 a side view of a furthersensor system 500. The sensor system shown in FIGS. 15 and 16 differsfrom the one shown in FIG. 14 for instance with respect to thearrangement of the magnet 520. While in the system 500 of FIG. 14 themagnet 520 was on a similar or even same level than the sensor devices100, here the magnet 520 is vertically displaced with respect to theboard 210 and its sensor devices 100. In other words, the magnet isdisplaced along a direction perpendicular to the plane formed by theterminals 110, 120 (not shown in FIGS. 15 and 16) and/or along asymmetry axis of the shaft 510. Moreover, the recess 240 furthercomprises an aperture 290 allowing a simpler fabrication or mounting ofthe arrangement 200.

In the systems 500 shown in the FIGS. 14,15 and 16 the ring magnet 520is fixed to the shaft 510 and several sensor chips 100 are attached to acomponent board 210 and arranged around a central hole 280 (recess 240).The sensor signals can be combined in an ASIC (application-specificintegrated circuit) as an example of an evaluation circuit 530, whichmay be capable of measuring the rotational position of the magnet 520.

This off-axis type of magnetic angle sensor system 500 might becompetitive to on-axis angle sensor systems, which may only need asingle chip, if the chips 100 for the off-axis sensor and the componentboard 210 may be cheap. So these sensor chips 100 might comprise or evencontain only as few elements as possible and be as small as possible.For instance, they might even contain only one or two discrete halfbridge-circuits of magneto-resistors, such as TMR-based sensor elements.

Moreover, the component board 210 may be a cheap single metal layerboard 210 with cheap and thus coarse patterns. As a consequence, thecontacts or terminals 110, 120 (not shown in FIGS. 14, 15 and 16) of thesensor chips 100, for instance in case of a flip-chip assembly, or theleads or lands of the sensor packages 100 in case of packaged sensors100 may have to fulfill certain requirements to reduce or even minimizesystem costs. Embodiments may be used here.

FIGS. 17 and 18 show perspective views of two further sensor systems 500based on using currents to create a magnetic field, which may then bedetected by, for instance, TMR-based sensor elements. Again thesesystems 500 comprise a sensor arrangement 200 with a component board 210carrying several sensor chips 100 along with bias magnets 540 attachedto the sensor devices 100. The board 210 comprises a central opening orhole 280 as part of a recess 240 further comprising an aperture 290.Through the hole 280 a conductor is guided, which may, for instance, beintegrated into or attached to a shaft 510. When a current flows throughthe conductor, the sensor chips 100 may be able to detect its associatedmagnetic field and thus measure the current. Again, here a centralopening 280 in the board 210 and several sensor chips 100 may bearranged around this opening 280. In order to make the system 500 cheap,the sensor chips 100 may comprise simple sensor elements 330 only, forinstance, like TMR-based sensor elements. Their contacts or terminalsmay be arranged such that a single metallization layer or interconnectlayer of the component board 210 may be enough to provide all signals toa processing unit or evaluation circuit 530, which may, for instance,compute the current.

FIG. 19a shows a simplified layout diagram of a sensor arrangementcomprising four sensor devices 100, which are illustrated in FIG. 19a bydashed lines indicating the outer boundaries of the devices 100.Moreover, the terminals or rather the footprint of the devices 100 arelabelled by encircled numbers 1 to 5. As will be laid out below, FIG.19b shows a simplified diagram of a sensor device 100 as implemented inFIG. 19 a.

The sensor arrangement comprises three conductive lines of the firsttype 225-1, 225-2, 225-3 along with eight conductive lines of the secondtype 235. As outlined before, with respect to the center point orreference point 130, the conductive lines of the first type 225 areessentially arranged radially inward with respect to the conductivelines of the second type 235. However, for some angles, the strictradially inward arrangement of the conductive lines of the first type225 with respect to those of the second type 235, may be lifted.However, this is only true for a small fraction of angles. As aconsequence, essentially for at least a significant portion of, forinstance, at least 75%, 85% or even 90% the conductive lines of thefirst type 225 are still radially inside of those of the second type235. To be more precise, in FIG. 19a , a range of angles 550 ofapproximately 5° may exist, in which only one conductive line of thesecond type 235 is arranged with respect to the reference point 130without a corresponding conductive line of the first type 225 beingarranged radially inside. This represents an example of a situation, inwhich the previously-mentioned radially inward arrangement of theconductive lines is lifted, for at least a small range of angles 550.

FIG. 19b shows a simplified diagram of a sensor device 100 comprisingthe corresponding arrangement of terminals of the first type 150 and ofthe terminals of the second type 125. Once again, FIG. 19b shows theintersecting plane 160 sub-dividing the sensor device 100 into a firstportion 170-1 and a second portion 170-2, wherein the first portion170-1 only comprises terminals of the first type 115 and the secondportion only comprises terminals of the second type 125 apart from atmost one terminal of the first type 115.

Although in many examples previously presented the conductive lines ofthe first type 225 mainly comprise supply lines for providing therespective devices 100 with electrical energy, the conductive lines ofthe first type 225 and, correspondingly, also the terminals of the firsttype 115 may comprise further lines and terminals, respectively. Forinstance, if the device 100 requires more than just one supply voltage,an additional supply line and a corresponding supply terminal may beimplemented to provide the device 100 with at least two different supplyvoltages, for instance, with respect to a common reference potential(ground). Moreover, the conductive lines of the first type 225 as wellas the corresponding terminals of the first type may further comprise,for instance, a common clock line, a common synchronization line or thelike.

FIG. 20a shows a simplified outline of a sensor arrangement 200according to an embodiment. FIG. 20b shows the corresponding layout ofthe sensor arrangement 200 without the sensor devices 100 shown.Therefore, FIG. 20b allows a more clear view of the signal lines of thefirst and second types 225, 235. However, with respect to the furtherdetails, FIGS. 20a and 20b are similar to, for instance, those of FIGS.11a and 11 b.

As shown in FIGS. 20a and 20b , the sensor devices 100 each comprise oneterminal X and the board 210 a corresponding solder dot 315-X, which areimplemented for mechanical stability reasons only or mainly. Neither theterminals X nor its corresponding solder dots 315-X are electricallycoupled to other circuit elements of the sensor device 100 and of theboard 215, respectively. Hence, they may be considered in terms of thesensor device 100 as being galvanically or electrically function-free,as no current or information is transported via these structures. Alsoin this case, the conductive lines of the first type 225 are essentiallyarranged radially inside of the conductive lines of the second type 235such that the corresponding conductive lines 225, 235 on or in the board210 do not cross. However, at some angles the radial arrangementdescribed above is not strictly implemented. Nevertheless, the number ofangles with respect to the overall angles at which at least oneconductive line of the first type 225 and at least one conductive lineof the second type 235 are arranged, is comparably small as outlined anddescribed before.

The solder dot 315-X′ may, optionally, be coupled to ground potentialvia the lead frame structure of the sensor package 140 and thecorresponding conductive line of the first type 225 coupling the sensordevice 100 to ground potential. However, as outlined before, both thesolder pad 315-X′ and its corresponding terminal X′ also serve thepurpose of mechanically stabilizing the sensor package to the board 210.

FIGS. 21a and 21b show a similar situation for a further sensorarrangement 200 according to an embodiment. FIG. 21b shows acorresponding layout without the sensor devices shown. Once again, theoverall radial arrangement as described before is implemented also here.However, for some angles, once again, the previously-described radialarrangement is deviated from. However, the number of angles or thefraction of angles is comparably small such that essentially thepreviously-described arrangement of the conductive lines 225, 235 isstill valid. For instance, for the angle range 550 as depicted in FIG.21b , only a conductive line of the second type 235 exists without aconductive line of the first type 225 being radially inwardly arranged.The same situation is also depicted in FIG. 20b but with the roles ofthe first and second conductive lines 225, 235 being interchanged. InFIG. 20b , in the angle range 550 only a conductive line of the firsttype 225 exists with a conductive line of the second type 235 beingarranged radially outwardly.

Naturally, other applications may also be used together with anembodiment. Using an embodiment may allow an easier implementation of adevice 100 and/or a sensor arrangement 200.

The description and drawings merely illustrate the principles of theinvention. It will thus be appreciated that those skilled in the artwill be able to devise various arrangements that, although notexplicitly described or shown herein, embody the principles of theinvention and are included within its spirit and scope. Furthermore, allexamples recited herein are principally intended expressly to be onlyfor pedagogical purposes to aid the reader in understanding theprinciples of the invention and the concepts contributed by theinventor(s) to furthering the art, and are to be construed as beingwithout limitation to such specifically recited examples and conditions.Moreover, all statements herein reciting principles, aspects, andembodiments of the invention, as well as specific examples thereof, areintended to encompass equivalents thereof.

Functional blocks denoted as “means for . . . ” (performing a certainfunction) shall be understood as functional blocks comprising circuitrythat is adapted for performing or to perform a certain function,respectively. Hence, a “means for s.th.” may as well be understood as a“means being adapted or suited for s.th.”. A means being adapted forperforming a certain function does, hence, not imply that such meansnecessarily is performing said function (at a given time instant).

The methods described herein may be implemented as software, forinstance, as a computer program. The sub-processes may be performed bysuch a program by, for instance, writing into a memory location.Similarly, reading or receiving data may be performed by reading fromthe same or another memory location. A memory location may be a registeror another memory of an appropriate hardware. The functions of thevarious elements shown in the figures, including any functional blockslabeled as “means”, “means for forming”, “means for determining” etc.,may be provided through the use of dedicated hardware, such as “aformer”, “a determiner”, etc. as well as hardware capable of executingsoftware in association with appropriate software. When provided by aprocessor, the functions may be provided by a single dedicatedprocessor, by a single shared processor, or by a plurality of individualprocessors, some of which may be shared. Moreover, explicit use of theterm “processor” or “controller” should not be construed to referexclusively to hardware capable of executing software, and mayimplicitly include, without limitation, digital signal processor (DSP)hardware, network processor, application specific integrated circuit(ASIC), field programmable gate array (FPGA), read only memory (ROM) forstoring software, random access memory (RAM), and non-volatile storage.Other hardware, conventional and/or custom, may also be included.Similarly, any switches shown in the figures are conceptual only. Theirfunction may be carried out through the operation of program logic,through dedicated logic, through the interaction of program control anddedicated logic, the particular technique being selectable by theimplementer as more specifically understood from the context.

It should be appreciated by those skilled in the art that any blockdiagrams herein represent conceptual views of illustrative circuitryembodying the principles of the invention. Similarly, it will beappreciated that any flow charts, flow diagrams, state transitiondiagrams, pseudo code, and the like represent various processes, whichmay be substantially represented in computer readable medium and soexecuted by a computer or processor, whether or not such computer orprocessor is explicitly shown.

Furthermore, the following claims are hereby incorporated into theDetailed Description, where each claim may stand on its own as aseparate embodiment. While each claim may stand on its own as a separateembodiment, it is to be noted that—although a dependent claim may referin the claims to a specific combination with one or more otherclaims—other embodiments may also include a combination of the dependentclaim with the subject matter of each other dependent claim. Suchcombinations are proposed herein unless it is stated that a specificcombination is not intended. Furthermore, it is intended to include alsofeatures of a claim to any other independent claim even if this claim isnot directly made dependent to the independent claim.

It is further to be noted that methods disclosed in the specification orin the claims may be implemented by a device having means for performingeach of the respective steps of these methods.

Further, it is to be understood that the disclosure of multiple steps orfunctions disclosed in the specification or claims may not be construedas to be within the specific order. Therefore, the disclosure ofmultiple steps or functions will not limit these to a particular orderunless such steps or functions are not interchangeable for technicalreasons.

Furthermore, in some embodiments a single step may include or may bebroken into multiple substeps. Such substeps may be included and part ofthe disclosure of this single step unless explicitly excluded.

What is claimed is:
 1. A device comprising: a magnetic field sensitiveelement comprising at least two terminals of a first type and at leastone terminal of a second type, wherein the device is subdividable by anintersecting plane into a first portion and a second portion such thatthe centroids of the contact areas of all of the terminals of the secondtype are arranged in the second portion, and wherein each terminal ofthe first type is capable of being directly electrically coupled inparallel with the same terminal of an identical device to a network nodeduring operation of the device and the identical device, wherein thecentroids of the contact areas of all but at most one of the terminalsof the first type are arranged in the first portion.
 2. The deviceaccording to claim 1, wherein the terminals of the second type aredifferent from the terminals of the first type, and wherein theterminals of the first and second types comprise all terminals of thesensor device necessary to operate the sensor device.
 3. The deviceaccording to claim 1, wherein the terminals of the first and secondtypes are essentially arranged in a common plane, wherein the sensordevice comprises in a projection onto the common plane a polygonal, arectangular or a quadratic shape.
 4. The device according to claim 1,wherein the magnetic field sensitive element comprises a magneticallypinned layer.